Mississippi to Execute Willie Manning Tonight After Rejecting DNA Tests & FBI’s Admission of Error

[G_j]

http://m.democracynow.org/stories/13626


Mississippi to Execute Willie Manning Tonight After Rejecting DNA Tests & FBI’s Admission of Error


The state of Mississippi is preparing to execute an African-American prisoner tonight, despite an unusual admission from the FBI that its original analysis of the evidence contained errors. Willie Jerome Manning was convicted of murdering Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller, two white college students, in 1992. The execution is going ahead after prosecutors and state courts refused to allow new DNA testing that could prove Manning’s innocence. The Justice Department sent a letter saying one analyst’s testimony at trial "exceeded the limits of the science and was, therefore, invalid." Manning’s attorneys argue that no physical evidence ties him to the murders and that testing hair samples and other evidence could identify a different killer. But in a 5-to-4 decision last month, Mississippi’s state supreme court refused to grant a new DNA test, citing what it called "conclusive, overwhelming evidence of guilt." On top of the denied DNA test, Manning’s attorneys say prosecutors relied on two key witnesses whose credibility has since come under question. Concerns have also been raised about alleged racial bias in the selection of the jury that found Manning guilty. "We need someone to step in," says Vanessa Potkin, a senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project. "It is unconscionable that an execution would go forward where there is biological evidence that can cut to the truth and show whether or not he did the crime. What is anybody afraid of?"

[dballance]

1. This Being Done by a Pro-Life State That's Done Everything it Could to...

Done everything it could to shut down clinics that provide abortion services in the name of being pro-life. This really needs to be renamed "pro-fetus" since they obviously don't give a damn about post-fetus, live, breathing humans.

I guess giving life a chance doesn't apply in Mississippi if you're a black man accused of killing white people.

[G_j]

2. +100

[Octafish]

3. Something is very wrong.

Why so few give a damn about it also is startling.

[datasuspect]

4. mississippi hard charging to kill a black man?

sounds par for the course for that state.

[byeya]

6. An appeal for a stay to the Supreme Court Justice overseeing events in Mississippi should

be looked upon favorable; or, has that already been tried.

Eye witness testimony is among the least reliable testimony admitted in courts. It usually impresses the jury though.

[justiceischeap]

7. It may be cheaper to execute him than pay

to settlement on wrongful imprisonment.

I don't guess if they go forward with the execution and the DNA proves him innocent they (the justices) can be sued for wrongful death?

[Nye Bevan]

8. Another reason why I prefer life without parole.

Even ignoring the moral question, with LWOP there is all the time in the world to analyze and re-analyze DNA etc.

And I fully support very generous compensation for anyone who has been wrongly imprisoned.

[byeya]

11. That's been my long held view also.

[Orrex]

9. This should be all the proof anyone needs that capital punishment is bullshit

K/R

[2ndAmForComputers]

13. Sadly, for some it's proof it's awesome.

Do I really need to elaborate?

[Orrex]

15. Sad but true. (nt)

[mainer]

10. Is the real killer being protected?

We had a case in MA where two innocent men were sent to prison because the real perp was an important FBI informant -- and they wanted him free to keep informing. The FBI knowingly looked the other way while the lives of two men were ruined.

[byeya]

12. And wasn't the FBI informer also a murderer that never had to answer for his crime?

[2ndAmForComputers]

14. Yeah, that web browser he developed sucks. I prefer Firefox.

[librechik]

16. Mississippi, you're drunk.

Get out. You're cut off.

[mnmoderatedem]

17. reminds me of Gary Graham

and his 2000 execution which was upheld by then Texas governor chimpy, despite serious doubts about Graham's guilt.

It's disgusting that W didn't pay a bigger political price for that, though not necessarily surprising.

[G_j]

18. Bush hasn't been held accountable

for a single thing in his life, as far I can tell.

[kath]

19. Good news - a stay has been issued by the MS Supreme Court

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/5/7/mississippi_supreme_court_issues_stay_of_execution_of_willie_jerome_manning